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Read MoreBook Birthday Bash
It’s a Book Birthday Party and you’re invited! Help me celebrate two new books in my Rescue Animal Series. Friday, June 1 10:00 AM to Noon Canyon Area Library 1501 3rd Avenue Canyon, Texas It’s time to sign...
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Read MoreMore Rescue Animals!
These two will gallop right into your heart! I love stories with happy endings. One of the reasons I felt inspired to write the Rescue Animal Series is to shed light on a group of people who are extremely generous and dedicated to giving animals a second chance. My...
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Read MoreLooking for a Great Book?
Here’s my recommended reads from the past several months. So many new discoveries and a few old favorites. Enjoy! For Fans of Horror ONE MURDEROUS WEEK by Nandy Ekle Congratulations to one of my writing critique partners, Nandy Ekle, who has just released a collection of short stories. This thrilling...
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Read MoreField Trip – Roswell
Roswell, New Mexico As a member of Amarillo’s Association of Desk and Derrick Club for over 25 years, I make an effort to attend the Regional meetings, not just to see the many friends I’ve made through the years, but also because of the field trips to job sites....
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Read MorePower of the Purse
This week a hometown friend invited me to the Tenth Anniversary celebration and fundraiser for Power of the Purse, which features a purse auction to benefit the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health. Over 1,000 women attended to hear former first lady, Mrs. Laura Bush, talk about the efforts...
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Read MoreChecking Cows
Checking Cows After moving eight miles from town and down the road from my in-laws, I wondered at my father-in-law’s compulsion to drive through his cattle every single day, sometimes twice. My husband did the same. We drove through the steers he fed out on leased grass most every...
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Read MoreCowboy Gear: BOOTS
Cowboy boots, high-heeled boots, custom-mades, short tops were pee-wees. The early version of boots seen in the West did not always have high-heels, which has become synonymous with the American cowboy style. Early over-the-counter boots were plain with a lower heel and cost around $15.00. Cowboys began to wear...
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Read MoreGamers & Their Parents
Gamers & Their Parents: Are We Raising Violent Youth? Is our youth more violent today because of video games? Every time we experience a horrific incident involving America’s youth, the group of computer geeks labeled “gamers” are usually mentioned in the backlash. As a mom of one precious heavenly...
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Prairie Purview
Windmills on the High Plains
Oldtimers say it’s a place where you can watch your dog run away for two days. A vast, arid plain of un-watered hearty mixture of grasses. Charles Goodnight set his ranch in Palo Duro Canyon and watered his livestock from the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, the flowing channel that had cut the deep canyon. In the northern Texas Panhandle, the early sheepherders settled along the banks of the Canadian River. In between were millions of acres of land without water. The thing that drove early pioneer women mad, coating clean laundry with dust and turning vegetable gardens into wilted choas, was the thing that opened the Texas Panhandle for settlement. The wind. It wasn’t unheard of to combine the power of wind with the movement of water. The Europeans had utilized windmills in ancient villages for several centuries to drive sawmills, power small factories, and mill flour. The shallow wells back East produced water by drawing a bucket “hand-over-hand”, but that method didn’t work in the Panhandle where the land was hard and the water lay deep below the surface. B. B. Groom of the Diamond F Ranch in Carson County brought the first well-drilling machine into our area in 1882. American inventors applied the same principles only made...
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Great-Grandmother’s Oak Table
Is it possible to feel emotional towards a piece of furniture? We own an antique oak table which came from Mullins, Texas, my great-grandmother’s house. It must have been over 75 years old when Mom and Dad brought it home. I was in Junior High. My parents passed it to me when I married eleven years later. My husband rebuilt part of the base, which had rotted from being stored in a barn. The top has worm trails and puncture holes, which he meticulously filled with wood putty. I stopped him and dug out most of the putty before it dried, telling him I wanted every crack and hole to remain as they were. He visualized a smooth and shiny honey-colored oak top, with a new finish. My vision was completely different. “It has character,” I said. He added six layers of varnish on the top and glued the under skirt, but it hangs loose. I still like the imperfections. We eat an early breakfast there every morning at this round table, my husband and I, before the kids wake. It’s usually the only time of day we have each others undivided attention. My mom and my oldest son worked on a craft project together and nothing will remove those dried spots of...
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January Reads
Recommended reads and reviews for a few of the treasures I discovered in January. For Fans of Westerns THE MEDICINE KNIFE by Don Coldsmith I’m working my way through The Spanish Bit Saga by Don Coldsmith, after finding a few of his works at the local library sale. He is known for putting a new twist on the Western novel genre by writing in the Native American point of view. In Book 12, “The Medicine Knife” (Random House,...
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Master Storyteller, Dusty Richards
The Western Genre lost a legend, mentor, and award-winning author. DUSTY RICHARDS passed this week from injuries following a car wreck in December, just one week after his wife, Pat, died. DUSTY RICHARDS wore a wide variety of hats including renowned rodeo announcer, auctioneer, teacher, author, tremendous storyteller, cattle farmer, and cowboy. His Byrnes Family Ranch Series (Pinnacle Publishing) is one of my favorites and highly entertaining. His first novel, NOBLE’S WAY, was published in 1992, and has since penned...
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